Construction and Analysis of Novel In Vitro Circuits with Dynamic Properties

We have used identified neurons from the molluse Aplysia to construct novel circuits in vitro. One class of circuits were capable of producing two patterns of persistent activity, i.e., they had bistable output states. The output could be switched between the stable states by a brief, external input. Bistable output resulted from the non-linear firing characteristics of each neuron and feedback between the neurons.